Daddy's TDY trip to Afghanistan

We arrived home from all of our travels on Monday night January 4th and Bill was leaving for his TDY (temporary duty) trip to Afghanistan very early Friday morning. As some of you know, we were supposed to go right from Las Vegas to Orlando for a week at Disney World. Bill was supposed to run the marathon there January 10th. When the word initially came down that the key leaders' PDSS trip (pre-deployment site survey) would likely begin on the 8th, we were disappointed. What was the best course of action? Still go to Disney? We would have had 3 days before Bill would have had to leave. Cancel all together and tell Drew that not only was Daddy going to Afghanistan but we also weren't going to see Mickey? We initially thought we would go and Bill would just leave early but then came a tentative plan for the PDSS that had them leaving on the 3rd. Playing the "What if" game with this new set of possible circumstances we determined that it was best to just cancel on Disney World for January. It's not much of a family vacation when 1/3 of the family is going to miss half of the trip. Instead, we decided that we'll plan to go to Disneyland (drivable and more flexible) in the block leave period just a couple of weeks before he deploys at the end of March.

Fortunately we had booked our hotel through a military-related website, so all they required to cancel without penalty was a copy of the deployment orders. With US Airways, we hoped we would get a refund of Bill's ticket and credit for Drew's and mine. We called to cancel and submitted a refund request electronically with a request to call us so we could fax in the deployment orders. Just a few days later we received three separate credits in the amount of our airline tickets from US Airways...no questions asked. No copy of the deployment orders necessary. No nothing. Just our money back without even the tiniest of hassles. We were very grateful for that.

The night after we returned from Vegas Bill and I gave Drew his Daddy Doll and explained to him that Daddy had to go work somewhere else, something we've told him before when Daddy has had field training exercises. We showed him on the globe where Afghanistan was and explained how many airplanes Daddy would have to take to get there. Drew seemed to understand (as much as a 4 year old can) and he took the Daddy Doll right to bed with him and it has hardly left his side since. Here he is the next morning.

Daddy and Drew the night before Daddy had to get up VERY early to start his journey to Kuwait and ultimately Afghanistan.

While Daddy was away we kept busy with lots of Mommy and Drew time, and playing with our friends.

Here's Drew at the park waiting for our friends to arrive.

Drew helping Mommy make cookies

Drew enjoying a blizzard at an afternoon "Sundae Monday" playdate

Drew watering our new herb garden that he helped Daddy plant while I was at a meeting. He waters it every morning and is very proud of how well he's taking care of the "green things" that are starting to grow.

Sliding on the playground before our FRG meeting

Opening a new Trio building set that I decided to reward him with for his extraordinarily good behavior (Also, I was growing a little bored of building the same thing over and over with the one Trio set Drew got for Christmas so I thought I'd add a little extra to our building creations).

Drew painting a ceramic football at a friend's birthday party

Thanks to our friend Steve, Drew had a sleepover with his friend Danny and I was able to get out for a night with my friends too.

Kimmi & me

Drew was a complete angel while Bill was away. He talked about missing Daddy and giving him lots of hugs and kisses when he got home and we wrote him emails. He only had one "I Want My Daddy" meltdown, which broke my heart (Mama shed some tears too) but that also sort of relieved me because I don't want him to feel like he's got to hold his emotions in.

We resolved the tears with some extra snuggling, shooting Daddy an email, a quick read of "My Daddy is a Soldier," and putting Drew's Army PT shirt on over his pajamas. Before my last kiss to him that night I snapped this quick picture with my phone. It has quickly become one of my favorite pictures of Drew EVER.

Bill safely returned from Afghanistan earlier this week with plenty of pictures of his travels to show us. Overall, we're pretty pleased with the facilities at the FOB (forward operating base) he is headed to (will try to share some pictures in a later post). We are hopeful that the WiFi network on the FOB will provide a strong signal to Bill's living area so that we will be able to webcam with Daddy in his room.

Drew was thrilled with Daddy's return but had plenty of questions about where he'd been and why he had to go there. So, we decided it was best to bring up the full year deployment with him now. He seemed to take this information in stride, but we recognize he doesn't really understand what "Daddy's going to be gone for a whole year" means. At least now we have opened the dialogue with him and we expect it will be an ongoing conversation over the next few months.

Here's a couple pictures of Bill and Drew since he's been back.

Sleeping soundly after Daddy was able to read him stories for the first time in a week and a half. Definitely have to get some story-reading on video before Bill leaves in March.

Passing the Guidon and, more importantly, the Commander's Phone

This morning marked an exciting day for our family. During a short ceremony, Bill relinquished command of Charlie Company, 86th Signal Battalion. Already you ask? Yes, it was only 16 months ago that Bill took command of the company, but the battalion commander asked Bill to cut short his time with Charlie in order to continue with the battalion as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander. So we'll be doing this whole change of command thing all over again in July, but anyway, back to today.

The ceremony was at 8:00 am because Bill originally thought it was going to be outside on the parade field, and he was aiming to avoid the mid-day heat. Instead, it ended up being at the Field House and it was just early for no particular reason. We did arrive in time to take a few pictures before the ceremony began.

We also had time to chat with a few folks, including Bill's former first sergeant, who he'll be teaming back up with when he takes over HHC. 1SG recently had foot surgery and while I was complementing him on his neon green cast I questioned why no one had signed it. He handed me a sharpie and I started a trend with my signature, which Drew was happy to continue.

The ceremony began with the national anthem and chaplain's invocation, for which Drew was not interested in standing. Apparently I should have rehearsed the whole standing at attention thing with him. After we were seated for the reciting of the passing of the guidon tradition, Drew was happily plied with snacks. Smart mommy even snuck some M & Ms into his trail mix snack bag. I didn't even have to pull the calculator out of my purse for him to play with. Yes, you read that right. Our son is amused to no end by punching numbers into the calculator (We're hoping he has Grandpa Pat's mathematical skills).

Here's Drew stuffing his face while the battalion commander speaks.

Pictures in the field house never reliably turn out, so this is the only decent one, albeit dark, of Bill passing the company's guidon to the battalion commander.

Below: Bill delivering his remarks. He was short and sweet, and funny as long as you got the inside jokes. 1SG and I may have been the only one to have spent enough time with him over the last 16 months to appreciate all of the subtleties of the speech, but I think his remarks were well-received. He thanked Drew and me for our love and support, and gave a special shoutout to the cooking skills that I've developed (out of necessity) over the past year and a half. He also credited us with maintaining his sanity and keeping the small amount of hair on his head. He thanked his fellow company commanders and his boss, recognized the soldiers, NCOs, and officers of the Charlie Rockstar family for all their hard work, and finally (and to much laughter), he reviewed the speed dials of the commander's phone for the incoming commander. And with that declared "Rockstar 6 out."

Drew looking adorable after the ceremony concluded.

Bill with our friends Donyel & Steve, who were in the Captain's Career Course with him at Fort Gordon

Family shot after the ceremony (apparently it is just not in Bill's DNA to smile for photos)

Drew carrying my flowers on the way to the car. If you look closely you can see the blue frosting on his mouth from the ceremony's cake. No wonder the child didn't take a nap today after cake at 8:30 in the morning!

In related news, as a bit of an update to the previous deployment news I had announced, the situation has changed somewhat. Those of you familiar with the Army's version of "this is the plan" will understand. Instead of heading to Iraq this December, Bill is now headed to Afghanistan sometime around mid-March of 2010. We were not at all surprised at the change in venue, but were pleasantly surprised that Daddy will be here for Christmas with the amended timeframe. Of course, he'll miss the next Christmas, but at least that won't be Drew without Daddy on Christmas only a few weeks after he's left.

For now, we are just going to enjoy the extra family time the next seven command-phone free weeks should provide, without worry of being separated by long work hours or interrupted by late night phone calls. Bill is especially looking forward to getting in some serious time on the golf course, including a fundraising tournament tomorrow morning. And then, after a brief respite, we'll do it all over again... The Rockstars will be tough to top, and we'll miss the soldiers and family members we've grown to know so well over the last year and a half, but the Army is always about goodbyes and hellos, and it's kind of nice to know we're not going far (for now).

One last picture: I seriously was so happy to see that command phone go away that this smile was a permanent fixture on my face for the rest of the day.

A few cute pics...

Last week we went to the welcome home ceremony for one of the battalions deployed from Ft. Huachuca. Our friend Donyel was one of the soldiers returning and we went to wait with his wife and daughter and welcome D back. Unfortunately these ceremonies usually involve A LOT of waiting around, and this one was no different. While we waited, Drew made several trips to the snacks table, got lots of practice in on waving his flag (1st pic), and spent a good 15 minutes sliding across the gym floor on his butt (2nd pic). He did his fair share of running around the floor too, but I don't think he found that quite as amusing as the sliding on his butt. In the end we were very glad to welcome Donyel back. Drew was so excited that Melia's daddy was home that he wanted to go over to their house that night. We had to explain to him that that would have to wait a few days. Although we won't inform Drew of it for several months still, I'm trying to plant the seeds of the idea of deployment in his head now by explaining when we can (e.g., Daddy 2 day trip to Fort Bliss, soldiers coming back from Iraq) that sometimes soldiers have to go other places to work. I did find a Sesame Street video about Elmo's Daddy going away for work for a long time that I hope will help him understand a little. He's a big Elmo fan.

This other picture is from after Drew's shower the other morning. While Drew is happy to wrap up in a towel sometimes, other days it really has to be a big blanket ("So I don't get cold Mommy."). So this time Daddy really wrapped Drew up, snug as a bug in a rug. I just thought it was silly and cute.

We knew this day was coming...

Well, nearly 4 years after Bill finished his first deployment in Iraq, we've been informed he and his company will be making a return visit at the end of this year. Although no deployment is ever welcome news, we know we've been extremely fortunate that Bill has had as much uninterrupted time with us as he has. So, we accept that it is what is is. Daddy is a soldier.


We also feel pretty good about the situation that we are in. I love Arizona and we have some good friends here. We love our house. We are close to my parents (or at least close in the sense of the Army). Drew loves his preschool and has some good little buddies here.


So there are definitely far worse scenarios for a deployment. We are trying not to worry about it too much yet. You can't really spend 10 months stressing about something that you have no control over. I'd be insane before Bill even left. I do, however, need some advice from those of you who have been through a deployment with preschool age kids. I know this will be very difficult for Drew as he is very much a Daddy's boy. Sarah, I see a phone call in our future?